Chapter Nine: Who is that handsome stranger?
In this chapter, I take a page out of Kurt Vonnegut's book and do some self-insertion. No, I'm not going to be a character! I'm just going to do a little transitioning. He does it in Slaughter-House Five, every so often mentioning how he was at the locations he writes about.
The day after Hecate's defeat, her victims returned to class, talkative and cheerful just like before she even existed. Chisato, as well as the other victims, showed no memory of Hecate at all, even when questioned by the Sailor Team as to what happened when she was taken. However, gentle reader, this particular arc of the story focuses not on the aftermath of Hecate's attack, or even the area of Juuban Junior High. This arc, my friends, focuses on T.A. Girls' School, Reiko, and Keiko.
"Reiko, I'm staying late today," Keiko told her sister in the cavernous main entrance of T.A. Girls' School, where girls in red and grey uniforms flitted about in little groups, chatting with one another about the school day that had just ended. "There's a Newspaper Club meeting. We're putting the issue together today!"
"Cool, have fun!" Reiko said to Keiko, waving to her as she disappeared into the crowd. Reiko smiled and pushed open the glass front doors, stepping out into the beautifully manicured courtyards. There were some cross statues lying around and even a statue of the Virgin Mary, but Reiko wasn't offended in the least by any of them. She knew she was a practicing Shintoist attending a Catholic school, but she just figured that she was getting a great education and being exposed to diverse beliefs in the process. A gentle spring breeze blew her long hair into her face and for a few moments, she struggled to push the hair back down.
When she got her hair back down, she saw someone standing at the school gates, wearing a different school's uniform. She moved closer and saw that it was a boy, not really that rare around T.A., where sometimes a girl's boyfriend might come over to walk her home. Reiko sighed wistfully, wishing she had a boyfriend to come wait for her at the gates. At T.A., she wasn't considered too terribly popular. There were girls who seemed to have everything they wanted—expensive clothes, makeup, whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. She knew one girl who had a car already, nestled in a parking garage somewhere in Chuo waiting for her to become legal. These girls grouped together and became a super-group that basically ruled the T.A. social scene.
Reiko, however, basically kept to herself. She could count her friends on her hands, whereas these spoiled rich girls had cell phone address books full of acquaintances. It was enough to make her feel inadequate at a time when the one thing girls need most is to feel empowered.
She passed through the gates, flicking her eyes at the boy to offer him a simple glance. When she did, she almost fell down in shock because he was gorgeous. He had amber-colored eyes, brown hair that was just unkempt and long enough to be fashionable, and wore his school uniform shirt untucked as a form of rebellion. Reiko blinked to snap out of the momentary trance she was in, smiled at him, and ran off, knowing very well that Hikawa Shrine was in the opposite direction but not caring. She ran and ran until she couldn't run anymore, at which time she saw the Sweet Bean Coffeehouse right ahead, as if it were calling out to her. Naturally, she answered the call.
She was slurping down a frappe, her biggest guilty pleasure (though she was distressed because she had to trade up her extra-small size uniform shirts for a small at the beginning of the spring term), and examining the state of her fingernails when the door to the coffeehouse opened, heralded by the tinkling of a small bell, and the boy from the gates walked in. Reiko nearly choked on her frappe. The boy scanned the coffeehouse with his amber eyes and, when they locked on to Reiko's violet ones, he started in her direction. She swallowed nervously and smoothed down her skirt as he arrived.
"Hi," he said in a suave, deep voice.
"Hi," Reiko answered meekly, twirling her red tie around her finger.
"What's your name?" the boy asked.
"Uh, Reiko Hino," Reiko said with a smile.
"That's a nice name. I'm Souji Maeda."
"What school do you go to? I'm sure you know which one I go to already," Reiko said, sheepishly pointing to the T.A. badge on her shirt.
"Oh, I go to Shiba Kouen High," Souji answered casually. Reiko tried to hold back her shock—a high school boy had followed her, a mere 8th grader, all the way to The Sweet Bean!
"That's cool," Reiko replied with a small smile.
"You look really good when you smile," Souji said, laying it on thick.
"Uh, thanks," Reiko said sheepishly, biting her straw.
"So, where are you going after this?" Souji asked.
"Home," Reiko answered.
"And where is that mysterious place?" Souji asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Hikawa Shrine," Reiko said, pointing in the general direction of the shrine.
"Wait a minute, you're a Shintoist and you go to a Catholic school?"
"That's right. I just see it as getting a varied education." Reiko shrugged. "All my friends go to Juuban, so I miss them, though. The T.A. girls can really get mean." She flicked some of her hair over her shoulder and took the final sip of her drink, looking at her watch before declaring "I really have to go now."
"Can I walk you home?" Souji offered.
"Um, uhh…" Reiko turned bright red, grabbed her bag, and bolted from The Sweet Bean, leaving her cup behind.
"I guess that means no," Souji lamented, staring at the abandoned frappe.